Two-way radio communication systems having at least one voice channel are well understood in the art. In many systems, such voice channels support both voice and binary data signals that provide various system features, such as emergency call, voice select, push-to-talk IDs, and so forth. (As used herein, "binary" refers to signalling having one of two possible valid states.)
Communication control consoles are also known, and are typically used to monitor and control communications with a group of radio subscriber units (as used herein, "subscriber units" refers to fixed stations, mobile stations, and portable stations). In particular, a system operator can monitor a number of voice communications at any given time, and can also originate or participate in voice communications as well.
Unfortunately, to date, there are no consoles capable of dealing both with voice signals and binary data signals as supported by the RF communication medium. There are consoles that can support both voice and non-binary signalling, such as tone signalling, but the accommodation of tone and voice signalling presents relatively simple design considerations when compared to the issues involved with combined voice and binary data signalling.
A need therefore exists for a communication control console capable of supporting both voice and binary data signals as transmitted or received on an RF voice channel.